Unable to Open Antivirus Programs

I received a virus notice on my user site, and cannot open any of my programs. I downloaded (and paid for) McAfee anti-virus and am unable to open it, or any other program. That was yesterday, today I checked to see if I could open any programs on other user sites and have no problem or issue. How can I fix this without ruining my programs?

Viruses are notorious for causing all kinds of technical problems on computers, one of which is to disable your ability to open your anti-virus application. While this is a pretty smart move on the behalf of the virus application, it is a very damaging scenario for computer users. Fortunately, there is a workaround that you can use to bypass the virus's blocking of your anti-virus program.

Start Up in "Safe Mode with Networking"

If you start your computer up in "Safe Mode with Networking," you will be able to access your anti-virus application so that you can remove the virus and get your computer working again. Just follow these directions.

Turn your computer's power button on. Immediately begin to press the "F8" key on the keyboard.

Select the option, "Safe Mode with Networking."

Open Internet Explorer.

Search for an online anti-virus scanner such as HouseCall by TrendMicro (a free online anti-virus scanner) or BitDefender, another free program or Kaspersky (yet another free online anti-virus tool.

Run the program so that it scans your computer and removes all viruses that may have infected the computer.

Alternatively, you can try to run any other anti-virus applications that you have installed on your computer.

Properly Installing Antivirus Programs

If you have gone through the previous steps and discovered that you still cannot open your McAfee anti-virus program, you might need to do a bit of troubleshooting. One of the most common problems is the failure to properly uninstall other anti-virus programs that may have been installed on your computer. Failure to do so can interfere with the functioning of McAfee's anti-virus program. Norton's application is one of the programs that commonly creates problems with this. Make sure that you use Norton's removal tool if you have previously used Norton's anti-virus software on your machine.

Last Resort: Call McAfee

Although you may be redirected to pay their tech support to assist you with this problem, you should try to talk to someone knowledgeable on the site. Since your purchase of McAfee is relatively recent, you should be able to get some assistance if the problem persists. It is possible that the installation is faulty.